podar

Forms

podar (first-person singular present podo, first-person singular preterite podei, past participle podado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin putō (“to clean; to prune”), written Old Galician-Portuguese podar in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3][4] Houaiss lists the many senses of the Latin verb, from “to clean, purify” and “to prune, cut” to “to settle an account”, “to reckon” and “to think”, and notes that the Romance languages generally kept only its technical senses, “to prune” and “to settle an account”.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician podar, Spanish podar, Catalan podar, Occitan podar, Italian potare and Dalmatian potuor.^[5][6] Corominas and Pascual note that it lives on in all the western Romance languages except French; the Spanish verb is recorded from 1235.^[7]

The OLD derives the Latin verb from putus (“clean, pure”) with the verbal suffix -ō, and gives “to make clean or tidy” as its first sense, of which “to prune trees” is a special case.^[8] De Vaan lists among its derivatives amputō (“to cut off”) and computō (“to calculate”).^[9] Wiktionary calls the origin of the adjective uncertain, though its first meaning was probably something like “cut off”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first turns up inside Latin: a text of 1260 has ad podandum vineas nostras “to prune our vines”, with the Romance consonant in a Latin gerund.^[2][10] Houaiss dates the Portuguese verb to 1365.^[2] The Galician records are of the same kind: an Ourense document of 1371, and a Noia lease of 1390 that binds the tenants to dig, prune and manure the vineyard, cauar a dita vjña et podar et esterquaar.^[10] In all of them the verb is a vine-dresser's word.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In a satirical cantiga the verb is used figuratively, and the Universo Cantigas glossary renders that use as “to circumcise”.^[11][10] The editors of the Rianjo notarial glossary point out that Cunha's first Romance record is as late as 1813, and that Sarmiento noted the word in Pontevedra in 1755 among the verbs of vine-dressers.^[10]

Barbosa (1611) has podar de polegar, pruning to a short spur, and Morais (1789) adds de trombeta.^[12][13] Vieira (1871–1874) explains podar de rabo de gato as clearing the young vine of every shoot but one.^[14] In some Portuguese dialects podar is said only of vines and plum trees, other trees being alimpadas.^[15]

The figurative senses “to cut back, thin out” and “to curb, restrict (someone)” are modern.^[2][16][17] In Brazilian motorists' slang, first recorded for São Paulo, it means to overtake another car abruptly.^[18][4]

Timeline

• 1260 – a Latin text writes ad podandum vineas nostras.^[2][10]
• 1365 – Houaiss's first record of the Portuguese verb.^[2]
• 1371 – a Galician document from Ourense has podar.^[10]
• 1390 – a Noia lease binds tenants to cauar … et podar et esterquaar the vineyard.^[10]
• 15th century – first record of the noun poda.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders podar by the Latin puto and exputo.^[20]
• 1611 – Barbosa has podar de polegar.^[12]
• 18th century – first record of podão “pruning hook”.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais describes several ways of pruning a vine.^[13]
• 1813 – Cunha's first record of the verb, and of podador.^[19]
• 1975 – the first Aurélio records the Brazilian slang sense “to overtake”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To prune (trees, vines, shrubs), cutting off their dead or useless branches: Podámos a vinha em fevereiro.^{[2][4][21][1]}
2. (transitive) To trim (leaves, branches).^[2][22]
3. (figurative) To cut back, thin out.^[22][17][23]
4. (by extension) To set limits on, curb (a person, behaviour, spending).^[2][16]
5. (Brazil, slang) To overtake another car suddenly.^[4][18]

Word family

• poda
• podador
• podão

Related words

• amputar
• computar
• Latin putō
• Spanish podar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. podar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. podar
4. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. podar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. putare
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. podar
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 585
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. puto
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. puto
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. podar
11. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. podar
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. podar
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 210
14. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 820
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. podar
16. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. podar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. podar
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1127
19. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. podar
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. podar
21. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. podar
22. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. podar
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7280